1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an improved data processing system. More specifically, the present invention is directed to a computer implemented method, system, and computer usable program code for calculating and displaying a risk level of performing an operation within the data processing system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Today, data processing systems are rapidly growing in complexity and are playing important roles in most businesses and industries. As a result, these businesses and industries are demanding higher quality data processing systems, which, for example, have zero service downtime. For example, in the telecommunications industry, network outages, or even brief interruptions of service, has a significant effect on the network's users. In the financial industry, a bank may lose millions of dollars during a brief service outage. On a more global scale, failure of densely interconnected networks that are essential to governmental operations may pose a huge security risk. Thus, keeping these data processing systems up and running is crucial.
A traditional approach to computing resiliency is from a standpoint of software or hardware failures. A common assumption is that the number one cause for system outages is a software or hardware failure. Consequently, businesses and industries work very hard to ensure that software and hardware are robust. However, a large number of system outages are created by system administrator error. For example, the system administrator may assume that a particular action, or operation, will not have a negative effect on the data processing system, when in fact that particular action will have a profound negative impact on the data processing system.
If system administrators were presented with a realistic risk assessment for data processing system operations in an easy to distinguish visual manner, less human error would result and, therefore, fewer system outages. This type of risk assessment approach is radically different from currently used approaches in the field, which only present binary decisions to the system administrator without much other information on the real risks that may be created by performing a particular operation. Hence, applications that make system administrators less prone to human error will be an extreme change from the present information technology (IT) landscape.
Therefore, it would be beneficial to have an improved computer implemented method, system, and computer usable program code for calculating a level of risk for a user to perform a particular action within a data processing system and displaying that calculated risk level to the user in an easy to distinguish visual manner.